S5Dewey

Sorry, but I don't understand all the angst about this. The system top to bottom has what it has for talent and I'd rather see players like Beni, JBJ, Mookie, ERod, Vaz, etc. in Boston than being in Pawtucket so we could brag about how good our minor league system is. Because those ARE our options.

Yugo?

Every year the local radio station that carries the Red Sox games (and is owned by author Stephen King) has a "Hot Stove Night" during the winter. They rent a large conference room at a local Civic Center where they provide "ballpark food"- hot dogs, popcorn, chips, and soda - and a couple of the broadcasters are invited. This year it was Joe Castiglione (who has a sister living in the area) and Dave O'Brian. And it's always free. While tickets are free they usually have to be "won" by playing some lame games where everyone who enters "wins" until the 500 tickets are gone. Then any unclaimed tickets are released to sponsors who make them available to anyone who visits their businesses. The Emcee, who hosts a daily radio sports talk show, introduces the guests who then talk about the previous year and the upcoming season for about 30 minutes, then it gets turned over to questions from the floor coming from schmucks like you and me. The whole thing including a local comedian who "warms up" the crowd takes about three hours. Here's the link to the story in the local newspaper this morning about the event. http://bangordailynews.com/2016/12/12/sports/red-sox-broadcasters-excited-about-season-after-trades/ There's not much here that we haven't already talked about and for the most part agreed on, but I thought I'd pass it on just as a topic of interest. The most significant thing that wasn't mentioned is that when asked about what DD had done to the farm system there was what could best be described as a "pregnant pause" while Stiggy and O'B had a distinct deer-in-the-headlights look and there was some laughter in the crowd. This has happened every winter for the past 15 or so years and is the toughest sports ticket in the area in spite of it being free. Anyway,... enjoy.

The Sale trade somewhat reminds me of what DD did in Detroit in 2014 when he added Price at the deadline in that he took a very good pitching staff and improved it. Let's hope this one turns out better than that one did.

You get no sympathy. I have 6" of new snow in my driveway. BUT... I don't live in Buffalo - and if you saw the NFL game yesterday you know what I mean!

My thoughts exactly. You posted while I was reading the article. This supports what we were saying all along.

That's good news. We're back in action Internationally next year! Thanks for the update.

IMO we all know that trading away the prospects we've traded will have an impact on the team down the road. However, up until 2004 the Sox had a long history of always being the bridesmaid and never the bride (or worse), and part of that was due to their reluctance to make a move when the time was right. And if you want to say that a part of it was also an unwillingness/inability to keep up with the Yankees spending I'll go along with that too - but that's another topic. IMO we've gotten a bit spoiled in the past 10-15 years. We expect to have a contender every year, and being a contender sometimes comes at the price of never catching the brass ring because the FO is afraid to make That Final Move. They're too busy looking to the future to worry about the present. (I could get into a long dissertation about the economics of putting fannies in the seats every year, but I won't). IMO this year the trade for Sale was That Final Move. Now the team is looking to the present and I'll be darned if I can fault them for it. As Jax and others have said, we've got a small window here when we can underpay for the performance of players like Mookie and Bogaerts and use the money saved in that underpayment to build the area where we've been negligent - the pitching staff. These may be our Glory Days... our haydays... for a while, but I'm all for riding this horse until he drops, and if we become relegated to becoming the Yankees of 2016 in 2022 then so be it. But as long as JH owns this team I believe we'll respond just like the Y's are now.

Man! With 30 teams in MLB you must have some time on your hands!!

Ya.. I was comparing positions within the team.

The question remains, with 30 teams in MLB why would a Seattle fan come to (I hesitate to use the word "troll") a Red Sox forum on a daily basis if not to 'stir the pot'?

Remember, harmony (an ironic name if there ever was one!) only comes to this board to stir the pot. Since the 7th pitcher in our rotation is the weakest spot on the team - a great spot to be in, BTW, that's where he's directing his comments. Take it all with a grain of salt.

LOL You had to throw in that bit about JBJ, Didn't you? I was with you until then!! How are you doing? I was getting concerned when you hadn't posted for several days. I hope you're feeling well. I got my ST ticket application recently and I'll be there in March. What's the chances of our getting together for a game?

..and in replying to my own post ! ... This is the attitude we should take with Buch. We have something someone is going to want - and want badly - when one of their pitchers goes down. We should hold out and make them overpay, which the right GM will do when he's desperate enough.

Exactly true. When I think about second guessing trades that were made I try to keep in mind that I have no knowledge of what went into the trade. Who was offered and who was turned down in the back-and-forths and what the club's longer term plan is. IMO it's also important to keep in mind that GM's play a tough game, especially when they know that they have the BEST player to fill another team's needs. For example, my understanding is that the Nats were balls-deep in the negotiations for Sale. MAYBE we could have gotten Sale and kept Kopech... or MAYBE we'd have lost him to the Nats if we'd insisted on keeping Kopech. One in the hand being worth two in the bush, I'm glad we've got Sale today and not the promise of Kopech in 3-4 years.

Really? Chris Heston? The one who has but 38 games under his belt in his three year career? The one who pitched for the Giants last year and had an ERA of 10.80? The one the Giants traded for a PTBL just before they DFA'd him? That Chris Heston? If you think guys like that are a better investment than a player like Buch you should fill your roster with them. Good luck with that.

Butttttt.....I'll bet you'd hold your nose and take him for that $13.5M. RIght?

I wish you didn't post in bold so I could emphasize the portions I want to reply to! I know what you mean and I hear you. OTOH I keep going back to Ryan Dempster, who made $13M in 2013 - certainly a lot for a #5 - and pitched well enough to keep the Sox in just about every game he started. Buch's ceiling is higher that RD's and his floor is lower, but if he's the difference between a WS appearance and not being there he's not overpaid. I'm in no rush to trade Buch.

This would suit me just fine if it meant we could sign Betts and Bogaerts for what it would have cost us to sign only one of them.

This could be poor timing for Bryce Harper who has been rumored to be looking for a HUGE contract. And where does that leave the Dodgers (and the Sox) with $30M+ contracts on the books to Harper and Price? I'll bet Scott Boras is shedding big tears today.

Interesting concept. I hadn't heard of that. But aren't the Sox being penalized for a couple of years by not being allowed to pick up any international players as a penalty for some creative bookkeeping regarding signing international players?

True enough, but there are a couple of things to think about also. We're not going to lose ALL of the players we currently have. At least I hope not! It's going to be hard-to-impossible to retain them all but some will be re-signed somehow. The FO is just going to have to be judicious about which ones they sign and which ones they let go. There's at least some sort of a 'rotation', where they're not all coming off at the same time! And.. it may not be realistic to think that we're going to be in the WS every year. I mean... nobody else is. And if we can pull out a couple of appearances and at least one ring in 2017-2020 - not unrealistic when looking at our roster and who's coming off/when - we could probably survive a couple of years when we weren't there as long as we remain competitive. I still think the future is bright, even into the mid 2020's. And I wouldn't begin to predict what the team will be after that. That's 8 years down the road, the equivalent of 2009 when looking backward and look how much has changed since then.

I doubt that. The M's have two... maybe three... pitchers with any experience and no depth in their staff. Buch is the kind of guy they should be looking to take a chance and pick up. Their #'s 4 & 5 are a real crap shoot. The Sox OTOH are looking at a situation where Buch is very expendable. Losing the M's #4 on their depth chart is a lot different from the Sox losing Buch.

I'd recommend a trip to your family doctor as soon as possible. "There's something WRONG with that boy!"

Yes. And water is wet. Any player's value would drop if they suffer an injury. What would happen to the value of KFelix if his arm blew up or to Cano if he had an injury that had a strong chance of reoccurance that sidelined him for an extended period? The good news for Sox fans is that we can absorb a loss like losing Buch to injury and keep on tickin' like a Timex watch while many teams couldn't.